What I Learned From A Brush With Mortality

My father chose to postpone much of the enjoyment in his own life until retirement. He bought into the rat race, sought to climb the career ladder faster than his peers. First to arrive. Last to leave. Be seen to be putting in the hard yards. Measure value in time served rather than accomplishment.

He “retired” early after backing the wrong horse in his office’s version of Game of Thrones. He had grand plans for his retirement: buy a caravan and join the migratory herd of grey nomads. And he did. For a little while. Until cancer clipped his wings, before eventually kicking his ass. Around the same time I had my own brush with mortality, fortunately surviving to tell the tale.

From Fervent Finance … FIRE (financial independence, retire early) has been making its rounds through the big publications lately. The articles about FIRE in the big publications are often misunderstood since they are so short and are just trying to elicit some clicks from anyone online. Due to this, many misconceptions form around FIRE. FIRE […]

From The Frugal Freeway … What if you’re interested in financial independence but don’t necessarily want to be a digital nomad or trot the globe? Homebodies, this post is for you. Financial Independence for Homebodies – The Frugal Freeway Related

A Safe Withdrawal Rate from FI Heroes. In his own words: FIRE … “It’s all built around our safe withdrawal rate assumption. Within the early retirement community many point to a safe withdrawal rate of 4% (25x annual expenses) being the target. Most calculators out there will estimate a 4% rate having a success rate […]

From Montana Money Adventures … What if you could create a life that is such a perfect fit to everything that matters to you? Three years ago, Adam and I crafted a new plan. We were about to adopt three kids and we were expecting a baby in a few months. I looked at our […]

From Financial Samurai … Early retirement is nice for the most part. But there are plenty of negatives nobody likes to talk about. Let’s explore the downsides to retiring early. It’s been six years and three months since they took my paycheck away. For all the glamour of living an early retirement lifestyle, there are plenty […]

From A Purple Life … I was conditioned from a young age to defer to authority. “Don’t talk back” and “Because I said so” were common phrases uttered by parents in my house. You did what you were told or suffered consequences. So when I entered the workforce I brought with me this deference for […]

From FIRE The 9 to 5 … People talk a lot about the “why of FI” and the importance of having an over-arching purpose that is bigger than achieving financial independence itself. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It wasn’t like that for me. I have been keeping a journal for several years […]

Penny wise and pound foolish examples are everywhere. The term comes from an old English proverb that is sometimes used in the United States & Canada as well. Penny and pound refer to English money. If you’re penny wise and pound foolish then you make decisions that appear to be financially beneficial, but actually cost […]

From Route to Retire … What kind of person actually wants a stock market crash just two months before retirement? This guy, that’s who! That might sound like a weird sentiment especially considering I’ve been worried about this exact thing over the past couple of years. After all, a down market would kill my net […]

Burned by FIRE Finance A few years ago, I was leading the ultimate frugal life, or so I thought. I was plowing $6,000 a month into debt repayment, and I worked so much I didn’t have time to spend any money. I had no furniture in my house and when I forgot to pack my lunch, I […]